The Stanley Cup has been awarded with the Florida Panthers taking home the prize for the second straight year. With the trophy now handed out, the offseason is in full effect and as is often the case, there was an influx of activity around the hockey world soon after that; the most notable news is recapped in our key stories.
Extensions: Some players have elected to not test free agency and instead signed new deals. Among those was Blackhawks forward Ryan Donato who accepted a four-year, $16MM contract on the heels of a career year. He entered the year with a career best of 31 points and finished it with a 31-goal, 31-assist campaign. Rather than hit the open market, Donato decided to stay where things are going well and if he even comes close to this production moving forward, Chicago will do quite well here. Meanwhile, Senators pending restricted free agent Fabian Zetterlund inked a three-year, $12.825MM pact. Acquired from San Jose at the trade deadline, he reached the 40-point mark for the second straight season. The deal buys Ottawa one more year of club control while Zetterlund will be able to hit the open market as a 28-year-old in 2028.
Coming Home: After missing the last two seasons due to Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome, veteran center Jonathan Toews is returning to the NHL. He’ll be doing so with his hometown team as he signed a one-year deal with the Jets. The deal carries a $2MM base salary along with $5MM in potential performance bonuses based on games played and Winnipeg’s playoff success. Notably, he’ll receive $550K for reaching the 20, 40, 60, and 80 games mark while making $500K for 50 games played and Winnipeg making the playoffs. Toews spent the first 15 seasons of his career with Chicago, winning three Stanley Cups along the way while notching 883 points in 1,067 games. It would be unrealistic to expect Toews to be a top point-producer at the age of 37 after being off for two years but he might be able to give Winnipeg a boost on the second line, a spot they’ve continually tried to find someone to fill in recent years.
Staying In Dallas: Another prominent pending UFA center took himself off the market as the Stars re-signed Matt Duchene to a four-year, $18MM contract. The 34-year-old is actually coming off one of the best seasons of his career after putting up 82 points in 82 games this season, including a career-best 50 assists. Had he gone to the open market, he was likely to land offers of several million more per year but he also would have priced himself out of what the Stars can afford. Instead, Duchene got the long-term security he was seeking after playing on two straight one-year deals while the Stars get to keep the veteran on a below-market deal. Technically, Duchene will be making more than that over the life of the contract as he’s still owed $1.55MM per season from Nashville for each of the next four years following the buyout of his contract with them back in 2023.
Winger Swaps: Needing to open up money following the Duchene re-signing, the Stars quickly moved winger Mason Marchment to Seattle for a 2026 third-round pick and Dallas’s 2025 fourth-round pick (previously acquired). Marchment has two years left on his deal worth $4.5MM per season and has put 100 points over the last two years so the Kraken get some solid secondary scoring and some physicality at a pretty low price. Meanwhile, to make room for him on the wing, the Kraken then flipped winger Andre Burakovsky to Chicago for center Joe Veleno. Burakovsky has two years on his contract at $5.5MM per season and will look to rebound offensively after failing to notch 40 points in any of his three years with the Kraken. Veleno, meanwhile, joins his third team in less than four months and is likely to play in Seattle’s bottom six next season if he’s still with them at that time.
First Players Named For Olympics: While the start of the next Winter Olympics is more than seven months away, the first six players for each country needed to be named this week. Seven of the top ten NHL scorers from this season were among those named with the notable omissions being Canada’s Mitch Marner and USA’s Kyle Connor (Nikita Kucherov led the NHL in points but Russia will not be taking part in the event). This will be the first time that NHL players play in the Olympics since 2014 and the tournament will begin on February 11th.
Photo courtesy of Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports.